There are multiple hooks for removing the Tadpole, but they lead to nothing every time. Of course for the rest of the story to work, it can't solve the problem, but it feels very forced and frustrating that it doesn't give you anything for sacrificing both eyes, following leads to different sidequests, etc. It doesn't advance the plot at all and as such I consider it bad storytelling. In DnD terms, it's railroading. If for example you could cure companions, but not yourself for some story reason, this would lead to interesting character interactions and inject more background info. Would they stick around? If so, why? If not, will you meet again?
I think Larian could've done a better job of creating a sense of progress - right now, your reward for complete these "cure" quests is more so learning how your specific tadpole is different from the normal case (both Halsin and Omeluum's quests give you hints/evidence that something big is going on). I wish we got to learn more - who is the antagonistic force we're up against and what are their motiations.
I would say though, you have to expect a certain level of railroading in narratively driven CRPG, since there is no DM. The only way . Even a game as open as Skyrim is super rail-roady when you focus on the main quest. I actually like that BG3 has at least given you a strong reason to pursue these sidequest (a cure for something that can kill you). Whereas a lot of other games, your motivation for side quests are purely "just because" (this includes BG2 after you've gained the required 20000 gp to progress the story).
This cuts deep however: Because the main plot at this point is to find a way to remove the Tadpole and every attempt being foiled, I as a player have no reason to believe the next hook would be any different. Why would I follow the main plot at this point? I can see that the game is going for desperately grasping for any solution, but then there should be a justifiable belief that it's possible and more importantly a progression that tells us more about the problem. There was a tiny glimmer of that in the Hag solution, but not enough to get me invested.
The core motivation to keep trying despite previous failure is that because if you don't, you'll die (or that's what you believe until the Halsin/Omeluum quest). It's totally fair for you to feel that motivation didn't hook you in as a player though. The game could do more to drive home that need - my guess is Larian didn't want to over do it since RPG players tend to have time limits and real urgency.
The companions are a bit forgettable. For each of them you get the standard "dark secret", most are jerks and uncooperative (maybe with a nice facade) and cooperate because of story reasons, but their ambitions are at best to get away from their "dark secret". It would be nice if they'd differentiate a bit more and had more interesting goals in the future. Having a healthy variety of personalities and past-oriented vs future-oriented companion quests would feel a lot more satisfying. For example one of my favourite companions of all times was
Kaelyn the Dove from the Mask of the Betrayer expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2: She didn't have much of a background story, but she wanted to storm the heavens for a percieved injustice of how the world works. Even if BG3 needs to stay with the whole evil party vibe because Baldur's Gate is a hive of scum and villainy, why not mix in manipulative evil, evil in the name of good, evil but loyal, evil for a purpose, pure-monster evil, pragmatic evil, trying-to-convince-yourself-to-be-evil, slowly-slipping-into-evil, ...
How can you say that Kaelyn has no background story? The woman had a crisis of faith, betrayed her god and found faith in a new one, led the second crusade against the wall and in the process discover that she was following in the footsteps of someone else, and ultimately gets betrayed by her Grandfather and banished from her homeland. Her backstory can be an entire novel... and it's fantastic. It explains her motivations, her flaws, and her drive to work with the PC. Her focus on the future only works because her past sets her up for it - and that is the same for the BG3 characters too (each of their back stories are clearly informing their future goals).
Kaelyn doesn't have a "dark secret" so to say, but that's more so a product of her having certain blindspots - her "secret" is not something she tries to hide, but something that is revealed as you meet various NPCs in the game, all the way up to Kelemvor. Masks,
personas are a very clear motif in Mask of the Betrayer - each of the companions wear one - whether they do it knowingly or not.
The companions you've met in BG3 aren't good, because the good companions aren't in the game so far. We do see shades of evil with the BG3 companions we have so far. You can easily read the BG3 characters so far as:
- Gale is manipulative evil
- Wyll is "evil" in the name of good (and also fits loyal and slipping into evil)
- Shadowheart is trying-to-convince-yourself-to-be-evil
- Lae'zel is pragmatic evil, given the society she is a part of
- Astarian is evil due to a combination of selfishness and trauma (in fact, he's very much like Gann)
One of the things I do like about BG3 is the inspirations they took from NWN2, and appears to have tied the NPCs to the core plot of the story. Just like all the companions in NWN2 are tied together by the spirit eater curse, the NPCs we've met in BG3 are tied together by the tadpoole. I prefer this compared to some other games, where companions follow you and put their lives on the line for very flimsy reasons.
